Pier 1’s Costly Errors; Twitter CFO Gets Hacked; Apple’s Powering Up

Taking a long walk off of a short pier…

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Heads rolled at Pier 1 – or rather one head – as earnings were released and stunned everyone – just not in a good way. The numbers were so unexpectedly bad that shares took a heady nosedive of about 33%. It seems the company was just a bit too generous when it came to forecasting sales for itself this past year. Following a bunch of storms that wreaked fiscal havoc on the home decor chain and its 1000+ stores, Pier 1 figured, though apparently not in a mathematical kind of way, that it would recoup all that and more. It didn’t. CFO Charles Turner also was unable to adequately explain some supply-chain expenses and why those expenses are expected to go on and on and…I’m sensing a LinkedIn workshop in Mr. Turner’s future as he was replaced by Laura Coffey who will become the interim CFO. The company originally forecasted that it would pull in between 95 -$1.05 for the fiscal year, but not anymore. As those numbers took a dip, Pier 1 is now looking to gain between 80 – 83 cents per share.

Be-twittered…

Image courtesy of iosphere/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you’re amongst the Twitter followers of CFO Antony Noto – and no one is judging you if you are – you might have noticed some of the hundreds of tweets he sent out – within a span of about eight minutes – trying to get unsuspecting followers to click on some dubious links. In fact, he was not trying to out-tweet the Kardashians. He’s got a way better excuse than that – his account was hacked. No word yet on whether he used the two-step verification process, though, he really ought to since his own company does offer it and the fact that his account was hacked shows he’s a regular person, just like you and I. But a Twitter spokesperson wouldn’t comment either way if he did use the verification option. Hmmm. That might be because if Mr. Noto did use the verification option and still got hacked, it’d mean there are holes in the option allowing for pesky hackers to get into not just Mr. Noto’s account but everyone else’s too. Or maybe it was just a bug, some say. Incidentally, this was not Mr. Noto’s first time with a Twitter issue. Back in November the CFO tweeted a message to a colleague that was presumably meant to be a private message about acquiring a company. It wasn’t private at all. Oops. This, by the way, comes on the heels of another hacking into Newsweek Magazine’s Twitter account.

Is there a coupon for that?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Apple is about to out-green even the greenest amongst us as it announced its plans to buy about $850 million worth of solar energy. In case you were wondering, that’s enough energy to power 60,000 homes. The tech giant is looking to supply its “spaceship” facility in Cupertino, which is still under construction, with all that energy. But that’s not all, folks. It will also be used to power all of Apple’s California retail locations, of which there are 52, by the way, its data center and its offices. First Solar is the lucky recipient of this 25 year contract and the ever-indutsrious Tim Cook said, “We are doing this because it’s right to do, but you may also be interested to know that it’s good financially to do it.” Warms the heart, no?